David Mc Williams: The Man who Brought on the EU Rescue of Ireland

One of a new generation of commentators/bloggers. Former Economist of with the Central Bank of Ireland, UBS and BNP, McWilliams is in main way a spokesman for the younger generation.

Using the full range of 'news media' including websites, blogs and also a TV presenter, re was credited with forcing Ireland into having to go to the EU for a rescue package.

His website can be found here:

http://www.davidmcwilliams.ie/

A fuller description of his 'CV' is here from his own website:

David Mc Williams is one of Ireland’s leading economic commentators. He was the first economist to see that the Irish boom was nothing more than a credit bubble and one of the very few to accurately predict it would all end in a monumental crash with bank failures, negative equity and rising unemployment and emigration.

He is an economist, broadcaster, bestselling author and most recently, he has brought economics to the national theatre with his one-man-show “Outsiders” – a unique partnership with the Abbey Theatre.

David also writes two weekly economics columns in the Sunday Business Post and the Irish Independent.

David first book “The Pope’s Children” was the best selling Irish non-fiction book in 2006, spending 52 consecutive weeks in the top five of the bestsellers. Described by the Sunday Tribune as “the definitive guide to the Ireland we live in”. The Pope’s Children was the first in a trilogy and the related TV series “In search of the Pope’s Children” – written and presented by David won an IFTA in 2007. The Pope’s Children was followed by The Generation Game, which in 2007 predicted the 2008/09 crash and the fact that one generation would be left suffering negative equity for years. It also explored the redemptive economic power of the Irish Tribe scattered around the world. This book and subsequent TV series proved to be the catalyst to the Global Irish Economic Forum at Farmleigh in 2009. The final book in the trilogy “Follow the Money” was published in late 2009.

David also wrote and presented the documentary “Addicted to Money” for ABC Australia, which was aired in four continents in winter 2009.

Between 2000 and 2006 David hosted the current affairs show “Agenda” on TV3, “The Breakfast Show” on Newstalk 106 and the topical chat show “The Big Bite” on RTE1. He has interviewed some of the most influential and thought provoking characters of our age, from Henry Kissinger to Mikhail Gorbachev and Hillary Clinton.

He was educated at Trinity College Dublin and the College of Europe Bruges, Belgium and before moving into writing and broadcasting he spent ten years in banking. First as an economist with the Irish Central Bank, then with the investment banks UBS and BNP.

This is an article from the Daily Mail which highlighted his role in undermining the Irish government's position in trying to survive without a rescue package:

Daily Mail 16^th November 2010:

David McWilliams, a former Irish Central Bank economist and prominent commentator, said Ireland's only card worth playing in this week's Brussels meetings was to admit defeat and stress that Ireland's problems were Europe's responsibility, thanks to the euro currency.

McWilliams said Ireland should agree to let the European Central Bank - which has full-time observers inside the Department of Finance in Dublin - take 'direct responsibility for the Irish banks, over and above the Irish government.'

That would keep the Irish banks from contaminating the bond market, easing the market turmoil for everyone.

'We need finally to be honest and say to our European colleagues that our banks are bust,' he said.

'No matter how much we bluff, that problem's not going to go away - and our problem is your problem. You have got to help us, because your problem could transfer from Ireland, Portugal and Greece to Spain and Italy.

'Although it's not pleasant, we've got to defend ourselves. We've got to say we're in this euro together, so what are you going to do for us?'

The rise in yields across highly-indebted European nations has pushed the EU back into the depths of crisis management, after policymakers had spent their recent gatherings focusing on crisis

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1330218/Irelands-debt-crisis-kill-European-Union-stone-dead-EU-president-warns.html#ixzz15Srrbk4K